A debut guide targets entrepreneurs looking to strike out on their own and succeed in today’s economy.
Solopreneurs are business owners who run their enterprises “solo—as in, mostly by themselves,” writes Kluver. “They want to be accountable for themselves and their business without having employees or being an employee.” As the author points out, this is a rapidly growing segment of the working world: people fired up by dreams of success and facilitated by modern technology, which allows them to extend their reach far beyond the traditional and more local areas. Kluver, “an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience,” cites a study that estimates that as much as 40% of the American workforce might be freelancers by 2020, as the gig economy continues to boom. The author’s aim in these pages is to give comprehensive guidelines and tips to readers who might want to join that freelancing crowd. He approaches his admittedly sprawling subject from many angles. There’s the psychological aspect, reminding his readers that they must avoid the “victim-based mentality” encouraged by much of modern society. (“You are always accountable to yourself,” he writes. “Nobody requires you to go to work.”) There’s also the practical level, with Kluver offering advice on subjects ranging from the pros and cons of investing in a business franchise to the variables of hiring a good attorney and finding an insurance agent who’s a good fit with the business. The author is refreshingly direct and honest throughout, indulging in none of the simple cheerleading so often found in books of this kind. When discussing what lies in store for hopeful solopreneurs when they inevitably deal with banks, for instance, Kluver warns them not to take it personally when institutions try to poke holes in their business models: “They aren’t trying to insinuate you will fail; they only want to know the probability of success, and you should as well.” There’s a wealth of insights in these pages: Aspiring freelancers of all kinds will find the book invaluable.
A tough but worthy and detailed overview of the world that business freelancers face.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-1258-7
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Cherokee Street Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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